Weekend Workshop: "We the People Are More Powerful Than We Dare to Believe: First Steps in Dismantling Corporate Rule": May 12-14, 2017

The fee is $50 to $200 sliding scale, based on what YOU can afford to pay. Scroll down to the end of this page for a rough guide to your registration fee, and where to send payment to. Workshop location is in Portland.

Workshop Details:

This is a workshop lasting an entire weekend:

-Friday, from 630pm to 915pm

-Saturday, from 9am to 6pm

-Sunday, from 930am to 530pm

We the People are more powerful than we dare to believe. For almost two centuries now, since large corporations started winning Constitutional "rights" via the US Supreme Court, We the People have been slowly forgetting who We are. And forgetting that the Founding Fathers designed corporations as a subordinate legal fiction, chartered to serve a specific public need and to cause no harm. How far we’ve strayed from that reality!

But it doesn't have to be that way.

If we relearn our history, if we understand again that in this democratic republic, corporations were designed to serve us not rule us, then we can reclaim our sovereignty. Once we understand this, the sky's the limit. We can reign in corporate constitutional "rights" with legally binding ordinances, as have more than 200 communities in eight states: Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Maine, Maryland, New York, Ohio, Colorado and California. We can get back to governing ourselves, collectively determining what a majority of us wants, in this nation founded on the principle of majority rule.

-What would this look like at the municipal level? How can we mobilize local residents towards these much larger goals of actual democratic self-governance?

-Do we even know what the majority of local residents want regarding water policy, health care policy, land use policy, cell phone tower policy, energy production policy, economic development policy, etc? We're so used to thinking that all of these key decisions are out of our hands, so why even bother?

-Corporate constitutional "rights" tend to be one of the PRIMARY barriers against citizens having any relevant control over local decision-making that affects us all. Are local residents prepared to shift their activism towards more effective tactics and strategies that incorporate this reality?

This is the focus of my transformative workshop. I’m honored to present it to a body of local residents who are tired of losing again and again, when corporate interests interfere in our capacity to act as citizens.

After an initial presentation, I will facilitate a series of focused discussions, and small and large group exercises, to assist participants in exploring the first steps to dismantling corporate rule:

1. Understanding the history and root causes of the rise of corporate power, and corporate usurpation of our democratic authority to govern ourselves.

2. Examining the local impacts of corporate rule, how citizens are currently challenging corporations, and how these efforts could be redesigned to be much more effective. Decolonizing our minds and our language from the firm grip of corporate culture.

3. Taking time to express and feel our sorrow, anger, grief, despair, numbness, etc about living in a society drenched in corporate culture.

This is a workshop lasting an entire weekend - this is NOT a drop-in workshop. Thank you.

A maximum of 20 people this go-round, so please pre-register soon if you want to be assured of a spot. No previous experience or knowledge is necessary to attend. All are welcome.

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Sliding Scale Fees:

I would like you to consider paying a bit more than you are used to paying if you are in an upper-income bracket, and a bit less than you are used to paying if you are in a lower income bracket. In this society, we tend to forget that lower income people have much less disposable income for extras of any kind than do higher income people. So what ends up happening is that lower income people actually end up subsidizing the participation of higher income people at events where everyone pays the same price to attend..

If you have lots of dependents, please consider paying a bit less than the amounts listed below. If you have few or no dependents, please consider paying a bit more than the amounts listed below.

If you are at all uncomfortable with my suggested fee scale, please pay whatever amount you feel is right for you to pay. YOU are the best judge of what you can afford to pay. I can't hold your spot in the workshop until you send payment.

If you make less than $15,000 per year, please consider paying $50 or more.

If you make $15,000 to $25,000 per year, please consider paying $80 or more.

If you make $25,000 to $40,000 per year, please consider paying $100 or more.

If you make $40,000 to $70,000 per year, please consider paying $130 or more.

If you make $70,000 to $100,000 per year, please consider paying $170 or more.

If you make $100,000 or more per year, please consider paying $200 or more.

If you want or need your fee to be considered tax-deductable, or if you simply prefer to pay online:

Go to my homepage on this website, make a "donation", and then email me, so I know that your donation was a registration fee for this workshop.

Or make your check payable to my fiscal sponsor 'Co-Intelligence Institute', and send it to the address below.

(And please consider paying a bit more if you use this payment option, as my fiscal sponsor keeps 7%.)

If you don't care about your fee being tax-deductable, and do not wish to pay online:

Please make your check payable to Paul Cienfuegos, and send it to me at the address below.

Or you can make arrangements to hand me cash (in advance please) to hold your spot.